Every day or two he returned again, and used again to begin asking his discharge. His dissimulation, and eternal requests for liberty to depart, at length exceeded all bounds; so that, wearied to death with his conduct and teasing,* I lost patience, and gave him his discharge. Disappointed and alarmed at this, he was now in the utmost perplexity;* but to no purpose. He sent to remind me that I had made an agreement with him, that I would not call him to account till he had been guilty of nine offences towards me. I sent him by Mulla Bāba a list of eleven grievances, the justice of which he was forced to acknowledge one after another. He submitted, and having obtained leave, proceeded towards Hindustān with his family and effects. A few of his own retainers accompanied him as far as Kheiber, and then returned back. Having joined the caravan of Bāki Gagiāni, he passed by Nilāb. At this time Yār Hussain Deryā Khan was in Kacheh-Kot. This man had converted into a sanad the firmān which he had received from me on leaving Kohat; and having enlisted* in his service a number of followers, who were partly Afghans of the tribes of Dilazāk and Yusefzai, and partly men of the Jāt* and Gujer tribes, his sole occupation now was ravaging the country, and robbing on the highways. Having got notice of Bāki’s approach, he occupied the road, and took prisoner Bāki himself, and every person that was along His death. with him. He put Bāki to death, and took his lady. Though I gave Bāki his discharge, and did him no harm, yet he was caught in his own evil, and taken in his own toils.
Bābur at-Do thou resign to Fate him who injures thee;
For Fate is a servant that will not leave thee unavenged.
This winter we remained encamped in the Chārbāgh, during one or two of the first falls of snow.* Down to the time of my arrival in Kābul, the Turkomān Hazāras had been guilty of numerous insults and depredations; I therefore determined to make an excursion against them, and having gone into the city, and taken up my residence in the palace of Ulugh Beg Mirza, called Bostān-serāi, I set out from thence in the month of Shābān,* with the intention of making a foray on the Turkomān Hazāras. A detachment was pushed on, which made a sudden attack on a small party of Hazāras at Jangelik, in the mouth of the valley of Khesh,* and dispersed them. A few Hazāras had lain in ambush in a cave near the valley of Khesh. Sheikh Dervīsh Gokultāsh had been in many an action along with me, held the office of Korbegi,* and was distinguished for the strength with which he drew the bow, as well as the sureness of his aim. He had gone up close to the mouth of this den, without suspecting anything, when a Hazāra from within shot him with an arrow under the nipple, and he died the same day. The great body of the Turkomān Hazāras had erected their winter habitations in the valley of Khesh; we now pushed forward to fall upon them.
The valley of Khesh is a particular kind of glen. For about half a kos from its mouth there is a strait, which makes it necessary for the road to pass along the face of the hill. Below this road is a precipice of fifty or sixty gaz perpendicular descent. Higher up than this road runs a pathway, by which one horseman only can pass at a time. Having passed this strait, we proceeded forward the same day till between noonday and afternoon prayers, when, not having come upon the enemy, we halted. A fat shuterlūk* belonging to the Hazāras was found, brought in, and killed. We ate part of its flesh roasted, part of it sun-dried.* I never ate such fine-flavoured camel’s flesh; many could not distinguish it from mutton.
Marching thence next morning, we began to approach the
place where the Hazāras had taken up their winter quarters.
It was about the end of the first watch,*
when a man came
from the advance with information, that, in a narrow defile,
the Hazāras had fortified and strengthened a ford with
branches of trees, and had stopped the advance of our troops
who were now engaged with them. On hearing this, we
instantly quickened our pace, and when we had advanced
a little way, reached the place where the Hazāras had made
their stand, and were in hot action. That winter the snow
lay very deep, which rendered it dangerous to leave the
common road. The banks of the stream, about the ford,
were all covered with ice; and it was impossible to pass the
river at any place off the road, on account of the ice and
snow. The Hazāras had cut down a number of branches of
trees, with which they had fortified*
the opposite landing-place.
They ranged themselves both on horseback and
foot, as well in the channel as along the banks of the river,
and maintained the fight by discharges of arrows. Muhammed
Ali Mubashar Beg, one of the new Amirs, whom
I had distinguished by particular marks of favour, and who
was a very brave and able man, and a deserving young
officer, had neglected to put on his coat of mail; as he
advanced rather near to the place where the road was
blocked up by the branches, he was struck by an arrow in
the kidneys, and expired on the spot. We had come up
hurriedly, and many of us had not taken time to put on our
armour. One or two arrows passed whizzing by, and
missed us. Ahmed Yūsef Beg, in evident alarm, said every
time, ‘You should not have come here unarmed—you must
go back. I have observed two or three arrows graze close
by your head.’—I replied, ‘Be you bold: as good arrows
have many a time passed my head.’ At this very moment,
on our right, Kāsim Beg, with his band, discovered a place
where the stream could be crossed, and having gained a
footing on the opposite side, no sooner pushed on his horse
to the charge, than the Hazāras, unable to keep their
ground, took to flight. The party that had got in among
them, followed them in close pursuit, dismounting and
cutting numbers of them down. In reward for his bravery
on this occasion, I bestowed Bangash on Kāsim Beg as
a provision. Khātim Korbegi also signalized himself on
this expedition, on which account I gave him the office of
Korbegi, which had been held by Sheikh Derwīsh Gokultāsh.
To Kupūk Kuli Baba, for his good conduct, I gave Muhammed
Ali Mubashar Beg’s office. Sultan Kuli Chanāk went
in pursuit of them, but it was impossible to leave the road
on account of the quantity and depth of the snow. I
myself accompanied the pursuers; we fell in with the sheep
and herds of horses of the Hazāras, near their winter habitations.
I collected, for my own share, to the number of four
or five hundred sheep, and twenty or twenty-five horses.
Sultan Kuli, and two or three other persons*
who were at
hand, were joint sharers. I myself went twice on a plundering
party. This was one of the times. The other was also
[A.D. 1506-
1507.]
against these very Turkomān Hazāras, when, on my return
from Khorasān, I led a foray against them, and brought off
numbers of their horses and sheep. The wives and little
children of the Hazāras escaped on foot to the snow-covered
hillocks, and there remained. We were rather remiss in
following them. The day, too, was far spent; we therefore
went and halted at the huts of the Hazāras.
This winter the snow lay very deep. At this place, off the road, it reached up to the horses’ cruppers; the picket* appointed for the night-watch round the camp were obliged to remain on horseback till daybreak, in consequence of the depth of the snow.
Next morning we began to move back, and passed the night in the winter huts of the Hazāras, within the valley of Khesh. Marching thence we halted at Jangelik. Yārek Taghāi and some others having lagged a little behind, I directed them to proceed and take the Hazāras who had shot Sheikh Dervīsh. These wretches, infatuated by the blood on their heads,* still remained in the cave. Our people, on coming up, filled the cave with smoke, took seventy or eighty Hazāras, and passed the greater number under the edge of the sword.
Goes toOn finishing this inroad against the Hazāras, we moved down the river Bārān, into the vicinity of Ai-tughdi, for the purpose of collecting the revenue of Nijrau. While I remained at Ai-tughdi, Jehāngīr Mirza waited upon me from Ghazni.
His illness,